


Unbending

by yet_intrepid



Series: oh rise with me forever [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Gen, Pre-The Phantom Menace, Slavery, Tatooine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 13:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3611604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yet_intrepid/pseuds/yet_intrepid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s hard to be dignified when her shoulders and arms, sunburned from standing on the auction block in a thin dress, itch like her skin’s about to fall off. But Padmé of Naboo, thirteen years old and nobody’s slave, keeps her chin up and doesn’t scratch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbending

**Author's Note:**

> AU inspired by [ lectorel](lectorel.tumblr.com). Warning for some brief suicidal thoughts.

“I won’t do it.”

It’s hard to be dignified when her shoulders and arms, sunburned from standing on the auction block in a thin dress, itch like her skin’s about to fall off. But Padmé of Naboo, thirteen years old and _nobody’s slave_ , keeps her chin up and doesn’t scratch.

“Like hell you won’t, missy,” says Raxt, one of a pair of Corellian smugglers who bought her two days ago. He balls up his fists and steps closer. 

Padmé just looks at him. She’s pretty sure he won’t hit her—not right now, anyway, because he wants her to look pretty holding up silk that he’s slipped past Republic taxes to sell to Gardulla the Hutt. Padmé isn’t sure why a Hutt wants silk. They don’t wear dresses. Maybe for the palaces.

“Smuggling is against the laws of the Republic,” she says, and her voice is a little thin but it’s steady. “I’ll have no part in it.”

Padmé loves the Republic. She wants to serve in it, someday. And she won’t have any hand in anything that tears it down. He can beat her to death if he wants—and a tremor goes through her as she thinks it, because she’s seen a beating or two since she was captured—but she won’t do it.

“I ain’t telling you to smuggle,” he says. “I’m just telling you to take a damn order and not think about it, cause that ain’t your place.”

“ _I’m not_ ,” Padmé corrects. “And _that isn’t_. Only it is.”

He smacks her across the face. Not that hard, but she doesn’t expect it and she stumbles back, catching herself on the counter of his shop. When she looks up, he’s coming closer and then he’s got her by the arm.

“Listen,” Raxt starts, and Padmé’s eyes jerk up to his because she hears the change in tone. He’s gone from annoyed to angry, and suddenly she’s a little scared.

She tries to wrest away. He holds her still.

“I paid for you,” he says, “fair and square, and you’re mine, you get that? I ain’t putting up with this. You’ll do what you’re told, or I’ll sell you back and they’ll send you to the moisture farms. You want that?”

A heavy silence. “No,” she says, at last.

He eases away from her a little. “No what?”

“No,” Padmé says, “but I don’t want to smuggle either.”

“Raxt!” a woman calls suddenly, and he pushes her aside so he can look over the counter. Padmé spins quickly to avoid falling.

“Shmi,” Raxt says. “You’re here for Watto’s parts, I imagine.”

Shmi nods. “And if you’ve picked up a shield generator to fit a YT-1000, he’ll give you seven hundred _wupiupi_ for it. More if it’s new.”

“Girl!” Raxt says. He snaps his fingers until, reluctantly, Padmé looks at him. “Show Shmi to the parts. They’re labeled in Basic, so I think you can find them. I’ve got to look for this shield generator before Gardulla comes for the silks.”

Padmé wants to tell him that Gardulla can wait. But the lady across the counter smiles at her, and it’s the first smile Padmé’s seen since she got taken. She feels herself wavering a little.

She’s not helping the smugglers, she tells herself. She’s helping the lady. Shmi.

“Fine,” she says.

Raxt scoffs. “You ain’t half useful enough to be that insolent. But fine. I’ll get the word _master_ out of you yet.”

He disappears to look for the shield generator.

“ _Aren’t_ ,” Padmé says to his back, and then she turns to Shmi. “Back this way.”

“I know,” Shmi says. She comes around the counter. “I suspect I’ve been here more than you have. When did he buy you?”

“Two days ago.” Padmé follows her into the storeroom. “I’m from Naboo. I was kidnapped; I’m not—”

Shmi breathes a gentle laugh. “Child,” she says. “We all were, once. Or our parents.”

Padmé’s eyes widen. “You—you’re a slave?”

Shmi nods. “Years. And now my son, too. Listen, child—be safe. The word _master_ is not worth your life. Nor are a few smuggled goods, either. You need to survive.”

They stop by the pile of ship parts. Padmé’s shoulders itch and her face stings and all she wants is not to be here. She isn’t sure it exactly matters how that happens.

“Why?” she asks.

Shmi takes Padmé’s hands in hers. “Because,” she says, “there will come a day when you will be glad you did.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Unbending](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9286181) by [vinrebelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinrebelle/pseuds/vinrebelle)




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